overnight train to lao cai

inside the train cabin...guess the picture makes it look nicer than it was haha...

the hanoi train station was really packed with locals and tourists alike...was abit lost of where we were supposed to go...when it was time to board the train, we were rejected at the gate as we supposely do not have the small white ticket stubs...but we weren't given them in the first place!!!...what we got was just these big colorful tickets which have proven weren't enough for us to enter...then this guy came up to us and told us that there was a mistake yesterday when we bought the tickets as that lady forgot to pass us the small ticket stubs as well...and he was here to give us that...a sigh of relief...so he led us thru the gate and kindly all the way to our soft-sleeper cabin...was a rather small room with 4 beds, and already we are debating who will sleep on top...surely me as a guy will do the favour of climbing up and sleep on top i guess...but when a young vietnamese lady walked into the cabin to occupy the last top bed...i figured i felt rather funny having to face her when i sleep, so i changed with myyher who later will be glad to have slept on top with the air-con blowing directly while me and dawn was abit stuffy and warm at the bottom...

dinner at little hanoi restaurant

the tiring faces after the long travelling haha...

hmmm...are these thin papers edible???

the singapore collection in hanoi!!!

another 3 hrs ride back to hanoi city while we sleep our way thru...went to the little hanoi restaurant which was recommended by one of the guidebooks that we read...it is specially known for its "roll your own spring roll"...you get to make spring rolls (locally called "nam ren") from the pho noodle, vegetable, meat and the thin sheet of "paper" provided...taste really delicious...although towards the end, i was lazy to roll anymore and just ate the fillings straight haha...after the dinner, we came across a shop called "singapore collection"...we as singaporean was of course curious, wondering do they really sell singaporean items??? but we didn't went in to ask haha...i managed to take a quick shower in the public toilet on the ground floor as we didn't have the hotel room anymore...relaxed ourselves while kien arranged a taxi ride to pick us up to the hanoi train station...yes, we are finally leaving the noisy hanoi city to sapa!!!

tam coc boat ride

near the start of the boat ride
(notice the guy rowing the boat with his legs on the right)

one of the few small over-head bridges we have to squeeze under...
better keep your head low!!!

nice scene there!!!

the padi fields that surround us

the couple with the cute adopted asian baby which were together with us for the tour

those ducks that keep u accompanied too along the way

view of the cave from outside...

inside one of the caves...

boat hawkers with their boats loaded with goods...

at the turn-about point...heh, i got a pretty korean lady wanting to feed me =P

hmm...the locals actually use umbrella???
i thought they aren't scared of heat...haha...

after a good lunch at one of the restaurant nearby (i luv the mango juice!!! it is just so fresh!!!), we took a 3 hrs boat ride down and back the little ngo dong river to visit tam coc, which means "three caves"...they are namely hang ca, hang guia, and gang cuoi...their length varies from 40-127m...strangely enough, me and the 2 gals were separated...2 of them took one boat while i shared mine with a vietnamese gal (named "te" or something but she is living in hawaii now) and a korean gal("nam keong"...same keong as me lol)...tam coc is famously known as the "halong bay on land" as the river is surrounded by similar limestone towers...u can also see wet rice padi fields by the side of the river as we paddle down...the feeling of being in nature is just so fantastic...but maybe not the strong sun...haha...along the way, u also see farmers carrying their rice harvests on their boat...usually, the boat paddlers will give u a small paddle too to let u have a go at the tough job of rowing the boat haha...but u probably will not get to master how they can actually paddle the boat using their feets!!! o.0""...after visiting the 3 caves, we took a break at the last cave where it is swarmed by boat hawkers...it seemed to be a practice for the tourists to treat their boat riders...so we bought some drinks and bananas...and heh, i met dawn and myyher there too...haha...the trip back was much enjoyable as it was nearing evening and the wind was finally blowing...probably around this time, the boat riders will start to bug u to buy some of the hand-made items they had...luckily for me, i had a vietnamese tourist on board, so she ended up the pityful one having to endure all the "noise pollution"...haha...while me and the korean gal happily "pretend" to be busy paddling...lol...i reached back much earlier than the gals and met up with the rest of the tourists first...i was treated to the lotus seeds fruit by one of them, but yucks, dun really like it...and when i saw dawn and myyher coming back...they seemed to look very tired, but probably due to the non-stop bugging of their boat riders more haha...i heard they had quite a time catching ducks too...so i probably leave their part of the story to them...=)

hoa lu and its temples

at a stopover shop to hoa lu...taking a photo with a vietnamese???

and with a korean???

classic farmer chasing his ducks and ducklings around...

entrance to the temple of king dinh tien hoang
(the chinese characters i think means "a door to lock invaders from the north")





















inside one of the temples...





















only the king walks thru the centre...now there is tall step build thru the door so that when people pass thru the door, they will have to "bow" to pay respect to the king

the sedan that was used in the past to carry kings





















farmer relaxing while the ox works hard on the field

some of the beautiful sceneries we took there...



3rd day...we set off for our hoa lu and ninh binh tour pacakge that we took from our hotel...US$12 per person...joined by few other foreigners along the way...we headed down first to hoa lu in a 2 hrs journey ride in this small mini-bus...of cos, we slept our way thru the ride cos we slept pretty late last night due to the "night talk"...haha...hoa lu was the capital of vietnam during the dinh and early le dynasties...it was a good geographical location as the town is surrounded by mountains in the south, east and west...the defenders could just watch over the plains to the north for any chinese invasion...2 main temples were constructed to honor the 2 king of the 2 dynasties...namely the temple of king dinh tien hoang and the temple of king le dai hanh...the temples' walkways are usually built such that when viewed from the top, it will symbolise a "王" character which means "king" in chinese...few stories surrounds the temples and of the kings...but i think we can't really recalled much right now...haha...thou i remembered dawn took motion-sickness pill before embarking on the tour, and when we got down for the temples visit, she was virtually just half-conciously walking around haha...